Soundwave's Song
by AngmarBucket
Summary: Soundwave, being who he is, has saved many secrets over the years. One Autobot discovers he knows her better than she knows herself.


She heard the call, farther from Earth than most. Farther from Cybertron than most.

But she arrived. Finally, she was home.

The Autobots had protected her, had made her one of their own, during the great war. When she'd been found, mostly destroyed, in the wreckage of Tyger Pax, they had taken her in and rebuilt her. Her memories had been mostly gone, but the cause had given her a chance to make new memories. Her whole life was literally the Autobots, their kindness, their courage, their loyalty. But it was also a life of total war; a war for a freedom she didn't even remember. A war she had literally woken up into.

Still, at times, when her processor went into sleep mode, she could almost remember a more familiar darkness, a silence, and in the silence she sensed everything she'd lost. She blamed the Decepticons more than ever in those moments for robbing her of memories that could never be retrieved.

The Autobots called her Moonracer, and it was as good a name as any.

She landed on earth eventually, and as before the Autobots welcomed her among them. Some of them she knew. Optimus Prime she knew.

Her first battle on Earth was like her first battle ever. She felt tense but reveled in their victory. Yet as the two sides parted, as the surviving Decepticons fled, she caught one Decepticon staring at her. His visor bored into her and condemned her. She yelled, "What are you staring at, Decepticon?" and she fired off a shot at him, and went back to her new home. She remembered the one called Soundwave. She'd hated him then. Hated him more now. He had always been a soulless, emotionless, drone-like thing. Rumor had it he'd deleted his own emotions, just to make more room in his databanks. Now it seemed even his speech had been sacrificed.

After a while, the loneliness that had plagued her for so long in deep space felt abated. There was still that darkness, when everything got too quiet, but it was a little less dark now. The gap of lost memories was starting to fill with new ones again.

But another stood in the gap, and found her in that darkness.

. . .

Soundwave had never personally met Moonracer on the battlefield. He didn't even recognize the name. Cybertron had been a big planet and the war had been long, with many enemies.

He didn't want to voice his discovery aloud just yet. Megatron wouldn't indulge him, not without hard proof. He would find it and then he would go to Megatron. Over the next few weeks he catalogued Moonracer as best as he could, without straining resources. As he did so, he became more and more disturbed.

Because he knew. Despite the years, despite the new body, despite the Autobot sigil, he knew exactly who she was. Because he recognized her voice. That hadn't changed. Her vocalizer had survived, and from the first decibel, he knew everything about her.

It was the femme he had fought as a gladiator, so long ago; the one who had beaten him. The one whom he'd beaten in the rematch. They'd joined the Decepticons, first him, then her. They'd not been intimate, but they understood each other. They felt loyalty to each other. They believed in Megatron. She didn't mind the long stretches of time when he didn't speak. In return, he learned to live with her volatile temperament.

She'd been called Metronome. She had been the one who had filled his silence.

When he was ready, he reported his discovery to Lord Megatron.

"Metronome," Megatron said. "I don't recall that one."

Soundwave couldn't expect Megatron to remember every fallen soldier. There had been so many. Yet he didn't understand how anyone could forget Metronome: her fierceness, her zeal, her devotion.

Fortunately, Soundwave had often recorded her, as he recorded everyone. So he played a few of those old recordings for Megatron, and then alongside that played the new recordings. He pointed out the similarities in voice and movement, instinctive things her newer body and mind hadn't totally forgotten. Only then did he make his case: why should a Decepticon be held an unknowing prisoner amongst Autobots? Metronome deserved to be rescued, from their clutches as well as their brainwashing.

"How do you know she didn't defect?" Megatron asked him. "She may have undergone this change by choice-in which case she's no different than any other Autobot now."

_No_, Soundwave insisted. Because he remember that day-the day he'd lost her in battle. Even that had been recorded too, untouched but always there, ready for the perfect time, like everything else he captured and stored away. That was the day he'd failed in his oath to her. He showed Megatron the images, which had been damaged-he'd been almost been killed himself. There was no denying that she had been caught in a terrible attack, and the conflagration that followed explained why the rescue teams, when they must have come, didn't recognize her as a Decepticon. She'd barely been alive at all. Her whole exterior must have been burned away, and most of her internals.

She wouldn't be the first to lose most of her self along with her body. The rebuilding process often failed to save large portions of the original personality.

But what mattered was always still protected by the spark, the only part that counted. Metronome, buried away, just needed to be reawakened.

"Perhaps," Megatron conceded. Then: "Why is this so important to you, Soundwave?"

Soundwave hesitated. Then he played one of his oldest recordings: one when they'd been alone, and they'd already made their oaths to Megatron. Here, they made their oaths to each other. Because not every Decepticon could be trusted.

It had been her idea. "This is our oath of loyalty, Soundwave. When you fall, I will come to save you, no matter the cost. When I fall, you will save me, no matter the cost. We will always put the other first. And this will make us strong."

He'd made the oath, in turn. Until now, he thought he'd failed in that oath. He had the chance to fulfill it now.

"No, not now." Megatron said. "Don't be rash, Soundwave; it isn't like you. You will get your chance. We should act when it will hurt the Autobots the most, when victory will be the most assured, and the sweetest."

He knew Megatron was right. He could wait. His spark ached, but he squashed the ache. No wait was too long, if it restored her.

More Earth months passed. At last, before some random battle with the Autobots, he was allowed to strike. He would not fight with Megatron this time; his mission would be a little different.

The old Moonracer would never have gone after his obvious trap, alone and unawares. For once he was glad she had become so short-sighted and easily manipulated.

But she fought well. And her resistance gave him hope. He didn't want to find her too weak from her time with the Autobots. Especially since her time of readjustment would be hard.

He cornered her. She was beaten. It reminded him of a different time, a different place. When she knew she was incapable of escape, and thought she was going to die, he played her own voice for her: "_You're...you're the only one who has ever bested me_."

That had been from their time in the arena. He'd seen her before then, but never really paid her much heed. Then she'd gotten the better of him. He'd despised her, at first. She'd barely noticed his hatred of her, which for him had been quite strong. He'd beaten her in the rematch. Then she'd noticed his hate.

A lot had changed since then.

And there were more recordings. But for now he only gave her a small portion of her former self. It would be more than enough.

"_Megatron is my Lord. But I trust you to save me, Soundwave. And I know you trust me."_

"_I've killed as many Autobots as you have. Maybe more! Why do you doubt my resolve, Soundwave?"_

"_You think that because you beat me once you're better than me?"_

"_I wish I could keep my feelings to myself, like you can. I'm always ready to burst. Only you can cool me down." _

She reacted with rage. Defiance. As Metronome would have. He could have lost his life-but he knew the truth. He was not afraid, nor angry. He escaped her, but the retrieval did not occur that day. But a seed had been planted.

She couldn't face the Autobots, not with the information revealed to her. But of course they found out. Soundwave made it his mission that they find out. Still, they held onto her. Any hopes of them turning on her were gone. None of them could bring themselves to truly believe what was plainly in front of them.

He lured her out. He found her weakness. He learned that she still had one memory left, so small it had gone unnoticed-the memory of a song. His song. A song he no longer played. And one she barely remembered. How it must have been torture, to hear it, and to know that it meant something, but to have no other files to call upon to explain it. He played it for her without end, whenever she was out and alone, whenever her guard was down, until she had no choice but to find relief, and come to it. And when she did, she stumbled onto him.

She awoke in a cell. She was restrained and would be so for as long as needed. She was strong, even as an Autobot, and he suspected the ordeal would have to be long. He didn't allow himself to feel any regret. He looked to the future, when she would thank him.

He entered her cell and stood across from her. And he began to play those things from long ago, things she no longer remembered but couldn't deny.

"_Why do you always record me? Stop that or I'll tear your optics out!"_

"_I think you're right. This Megatron is legitimately capable. We really could start a revolution."_

"_What will you do, first thing, when we win the war?"_

"_I killed one! I killed one, and he never even saw me coming!"_

"_Let me torture this one. Look what he did to my arm. I almost lost it. Look what he did to the others. Please let me do it. He deserves it."_

"_I killed two Autobots for you today. I didn't do it for Megatron. I did it for you."_

_"Megatron is my Lord. But I trust you to save me, Soundwave. And I know you trust me."_

There were other things, too. Other voices. Autobot voices. _His_ voice, a voice he no longer used. After a while, she began to scream. Because she knew it was true. The more she screamed, the more he showed her the life she had lost. Not even Metronome had know how often he had captured her voice, or the images he'd caught of her in battle, or just standing against in some forgotten location. He had so many files, undeleted after all this time, to bring to the surface.

And when he ran out, he played them again.

It would take more than one day to make her accept the truth. It would take many days. Many days, because she was so strong.

But the break began. One day. "Someone make him stop talking to me!" she screamed. "That's not me! It can't be me! I'm an Autobot! I'm an Autobot!"

"_Let me hear that song again..._"

"Make him stop, someone make him stop. I hate that song. I hate it."

So many days. He still had the work allotted to him, but when he was free he was here, with her. He visited her daily, until she was nothing but the thrashing, energon-starved, frantic remains of an Autobot, until something else shown through.

But as it turned out, to force her to understand, to make her truly admit he was right, he required a simpler mantra. In the end, only a few things really mattered. In the end, he concentrated on the only things that had summed up her entire world.

_"Megatron is my Lord." _Over and over.

"_I trust you to save me." _Over and over.

"_I trust you to save me, Soundwave." _Over and over.

"_I trust you to save me, Soundwave."_

And over. _"I trust you to save me, Soundwave. At any cost."_

End


End file.
